Gareth Southgate is FIFA 2018’s new menswear hero! Here’s how to cop his look

The English coach is an unexpected fashion hit

For England, two really unexpected things have come out of the FIFA World Cup 2018. The first, is that they have finally made it past the quarter finals after 28 years, and the second, is that their manager, Gareth Southgate has become an unexpected fashion icon. And the sartorial hit item in discussion, is a humble waistcoat that Southgate has been sporting since the beginning of this year’s tournament in Russia.

Just like England was never expected to go to the semi-finals, nobody would have thought in their wildest dreams that Southgate was going to become a style sensation on the sidelines. And that includes Southgate himself, who on the World Cup Daily podcast said, “I am slightly confused. As a center-half who took a lot of knocks to the head, I’m not normally synonymous with fashion icon.” This is the same dude who previously wore ties that were a little too short and once even wore his team’s kit – we are sure the intention behind which was team spirit, but the choice did not scream successful team manager exactly.

Marks and Spencer who are the official supplier of the team since 1997 have dubbed it the ‘Gareth Southgate Effect’ with an increase in 35 per cent sales. Should you want to cop the look, the three-piece suit will cost you £264 (approx ₹24,000). But the hero item itself is only for £65 (approx ₹5,900).

Nigeria’s cool AF zig-zag kit had earlier broken pre-order sales with three million pieces sold. But with the waistcoat, it is not only M&S that are benefitting. Just a few days ago, TM Lewin tweeted that waistcoat sales are “going through the stadium roof”. With all of this, the waistcoat had to be given the meme treatment. The best one was from Huawei, who showed off their zoom feature with this photoshopped picture of Southgate in his waistcoat.

Fans have already started wearing similar waistcoats while watching the match at the stadium, and with England playing against Croatia tomorrow, there are plans for #WaistcoatWednesday to trend. And it is all for a good cause. Supporters of Waistcoat Wednesday will be helping to raise vital funds for UK based blood cancer charity, Bloodwise. Fans who have been hearing rumours of M&S running out of the cult fashion item need not be disappointed, as an M&S Spokesperson said, “Gareth’s sideline style has meant our waistcoats are really scoring with our customers with sales doubling since the World Cup began. We’ve got enough different styles in stock for everyone to show their support for the boys on #waistcoatwednesday.”

If you thought Nigeria has already won the world cup of style, then you couldn’t have been more wrong. It now looks like England might just win the actual world cup along with the world cup of style.